Taylor Made Racing Testing Homemade Moto2 Racebike

Taylor Made Racing, best known for its underbelly exhausts for many of today’s popular sportbikes, is tackling perhaps its biggest challenge yet: designing and testing its own Moto2 machine. Assuming testing goes to plan, the team hope to enter as a wildcard entry in the Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP Grand Prix, Aug. 16-18.

The monocoque chassis incorporates the fuel tank, bodywork and frame and is made entirely of carbon fiber. “We only needed to make the frame as wide as the [Honda CBR600RR] engine,” says Paul Taylor, Founder of Taylor Made. “So that helps the aerodynamics.” Looking at the picture above, you’ll notice a giant air duct at the nose. This duct channels air through the integrated tunnel to the rear-mounted radiator mounted under the seat, similar to the design seen on the Britten superbike of the early 90s.

Suspension-wise, the Taylor Made Moto2 bike incorporates a front A-arm design with a traditional telescopic fork fitted with Traxxion Dynamics AK internal gas cartridges. The benefit, says test and development rider, Shawn Higbee, is the ability to tune the amount of dive under braking, as well as increased front-end feel at full lean. In the rear, a Penske shock is mated to a substantial carbon fiber swingarm.

Since keeping weight to a minimum is key on a racebike, Taylor Made Racing teamed up with Shorai batteries to test its LFX07L2 lithium battery which weighs 1.06 lbs. A battery this size isn’t normally recommended for a 600cc engine, due to starter issues, but the Taylor Made Moto2 bike will use a remote starter, meaning the LFX07L2 will only be needed to support the bike’s basic electrical demands. And because of the sustained high revs of a racebike, the charging system on board should be sufficient to keep the battery recharged.

Learn more about the bike by watching the video below, or by visiting the Shorai website.